​At 982 pages, Dragon Mage isn’t a story that’s encumbered by its length!

Dragon Mage

Okay, so there are dragons, which is reason enough to read this book, but the friendship between Aram and Markus, the story’s main protagonists, set Dragon Mage apart from stories of this ilk. I enjoyed reading about the relationship between a rider and their dragon. However, watching the bond between Aram and Markus deepen made for a special read. It’s been a while since the relationship between two characters touched me so.

While the story covers the usual theme of good versus evil, Dragon Mage also explores being atypical and finding one’s place in the world.

Aram has a kind of high-functioning autism—I hope I got that right, ML Spencer! At the start of the book, he wants to be a sailor so he can spend time out at sea tying knots. He’s self-conscious and clumsy around others, and his behaviour leads to him being bullied, misunderstood and lonely. All Aram wants is to be liked and to have a best friend.

Markus’s empathy and kindness towards Aram binds them and yanks the pair into an adventure beyond their imaginations: namely, the world needs saving from an evil archon bent on godhood, and only Aram and Markus can stop him.

Dragon Mage’s antagonist, Sergan Parsigal is a nasty piece of work. There’s gruesomeness without being gratuitous in this book, and Sergan often causes it. If I have one complaint about this story, it’s not reading about Sergan’s comeuppance from his point of view. I really wanted to experience the bugger suffer.

Dragon Mage is enjoyable for its gritty, resilient and adorable protagonist who is not quite a hero without Markus. I couldn’t stop myself liking Aram. I look forward to reading more about Aram’s and Markus’s adventures in the sequel, Champion of the Fallen.

Image: amazon.co.uk, 08-Mar-2021

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